Vietnam Airlines (VN) recently held a tourism seminar on Vietnam where the airline unveiled the frequency increase and sales strategy for its winter schedule. Vietnam National Administration of Tourism and the City of Da Nang extolled the allure of the destinations in Central Vietnam.

According to Tran Phong Binh, Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, while the number of foreign tourist arrivals during 2009 declined by 10 percent to 3.77 million, it is expected to rise this year by approximately 35 percent to 5.0 million. He said that he is hopeful that the number of Japanese tourist arrivals should reach 430,000 exceeding 410,000 peaking in 2007. Kanji Tsukizawa, General Manager of JATA VWC observed that the vibrant growth is attributed to the additional charter flights operated from the regional cities as well as the increased capacity of Vietnam Airlines from Japan.

Vietnam Airlines currently operates 46 weekly flights to Vietnam from Japan and, the code-sharing flights with Japan Airlines (JL) being included, it operates as many as 60 flights per week to Vietnam. The airline further increases its seat capacity from Japan, by enhancing its weekly service to three on its Chubu/Ho Chi Minh route from November this year. Hideo Aoki, Senior Sales Supervisor of VN Japan emphasized that the airline aims to expand its future sales, providing ample seat capacity to the key markets in Japan.

Commenting on Central Vietnam which the airline is concentrating to promote, Toshikazu Suzuki from Da Nang City said that the number of Japanese tourists to the area is only 40,000, which accounts for less than 10 percent of the total number of the Japanese tourist visitors to Vietnam. As Japanese travel agencies point out, the insufficient number of hotel rooms and also Japanese-speaking guides in Central Vietnam are the top issues to be improved. Suzuki stated that the number of hotel rooms continues to increase in the city of Da Nang as Silver Shore Hotel with 500 guest rooms and a Casino opened, followed by the international hotel chains including Marriott, Hyatt Regency and Sheraton hotels. A hundred new Japanese- speaking guides are presently being trained. Besides brushing up Japanese language ability of the existing Japanese-speaking guides, the City of Da Nang strives to improve the linguistic environment including a Japanese language service at hotels and shops.

Suzuki further suggested â€œAction Toursâ€ instead of the usual sight-seeing tours, thus featuring volunteer activities, sports events including marathon and triathlon and cultural exchanges. In the future, he added, the City of Da Nang endeavors to aim for further tourism promotion of Central Vietnam, creating hands-on tourism products in partnership with Japanese travel agencies.

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